At least six security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province.

On Tuesday morning, a police constable was gunned down in Quetta following an attack on Monday in Turbat when militants shot dead five Frontier Corps (FC) personnel.

The policeman identified as Naseer Ahmed was on his way to work when two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle fired at him and sped away.

Last evening, a convoy of paramilitary FC came under attack in the mountainous region of Shapok in Kech district, 50 kilometres from Turbat town.

Five FC personnel were killed while six others were injured, officials said.

Since the start of the year, militants and separatists have stepped up their attacks on security personnel and installations in Balochistan.

The attacks started on January 1 when militants carried out twin assaults on a security checkpost in Chaman injuring three security personnel.

The next day, six FC officials were injured in a bomb blast near the suburbs of Quetta.

Last week, five policemen were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a police truck in Quetta while two civilians also died in the attack.

FC Barcelona’s French forward Ousmane Dembele is expected to be sidelined for three to four weeks due to a hamstring injury, the Catalan football club announced on Monday.

This is Dembele’s second leg injury since joining Barcelona during the summer transfer window, as he was forced to undergo surgery last year, reports Efe.

“Dembele had a problem with his left thigh and tests have confirmed that the player has suffered a hamstring injury of the semitendinosus muscle that does not affect the area operated on earlier in the season,” the club said in a statement.

During the 4-2 win over Real Sociedad last night, Dembele was brought in for Brazil’s Paulinho in the last half hour of the game at Anoeta stadium, where Barcelona prevailed for the first time in 11 years.

Even as the controversies related to her upcoming film Padmaavat continue, Deepika Padukone is back to work and busy with her professional commitments.

The gorgeous diva was seen in a new avatar when she turned into a rowdy cop on Mumbai streets for a television commercial.

@DeepikaPadukone nails the cop look for a commercial! #DeepikaPadukone #DeepikaPadukonefans #Mumbai #Traffic #Cop #toughlook #adshoot #BTS #Bollywood #Bollywoodlove #Instalove #Instabollywood #Bollywoodnews #Bollywoodupdates #Instagood #Insta #Instapic #PicOfTheDay #Instago #bollywoodactress #hot #beautiful

A post shared by Movie Talkies (@movietalkies) on Jan 15, 2018 at 11:37pm PST

She was seen wearing a police officer’s uniform, a white shirt, and khaki trousers. The red handkerchief tied around her left wrist- was something that added to the look. She is also seen wearing gold-rimmed shades. She is seen sitting on the top of a jeep and chilling like a boss.  Although the storyline of the commercial is yet to be declared, the look of Deepika has been viral on the social media.

New Deepika in mombai for a ad shoot جدید از دیپیکا در بمبعی برای ضبط یک تبلیغ اخبار بیشتر در کانال تلگرام لینک در بیو

A post shared by bollywood hollywood cinema (@bolly_holly_cinema) on Jan 15, 2018 at 10:51pm PST

On the work front, the much-awaited film Padmaavat is releasing on 25th January, which also stars Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor.

Apart from this, her upcoming projects are Sapna Didi, Rana, Sahir Ludhianvi Bio-pic.

Currently, her eyes are on the release of Padmaavat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress party saying it has “hoodwinked” people by just laying foundation stones for projects and has done nothing for the poor.

Speaking at a function organised to start work on the Rs 43,129 crore Barmer oil refinery project, Modi said drought and Congress walk hand-in-hand and the state saw end of drought when the party was shown the door.

Touching on the slugfest between ruling BJP and Congress over credit for the refinery, he said the Congress had only laid foundation stones for projects across the country to claim credit.

Railway lines were announced just to claim short term popularity with projects never ever seeing the light, he said.

Congress, he said, had “hoodwinked” people by making just announcements.

Modi said the Congress had seen his commitment to one- rank-one-pension scheme for defence personnel and provided for Rs 500 crore in the interim budget just before the 2014 general elections to claim credit.

“Barmer refinery was at least on papers, OROP wasn’t even on paper,” he said, adding that no ground work on the beneficiaries or on the outgo was ever done.

It took one-and-half-years to collate the list of beneficiaries of OROP and the implementation cost Rs 12,000 crore as against Rs 500 crore provided by the Congress, he said.

Of this, four instalments totalling Rs 10,700 crore have already been made to defence personnel and the rest would also be paid soon, he said.

He said while the Congress just gave the slogan of ‘garibi hatao’ (remove poverty), the BJP government has worked towards doing so by way of providing free cooking gas (LPG) connection to poor women and giving free power connection to the four crore households that still do not have electricity.

Ahead of the event, ruling BJP and opposition Congress slugged it out to get credit for the refinery.

Congress says its then president Sonia Gandhi had laid foundation stone of the refinery on September 22, 2013 and Modi was “re-laying” the foundation stone.

But both Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje said that foundation laying was a political stunt done days before the model code of conduct for assembly elections came into force on September 27, 2013.

Neither the land was acquired for the project nor the environment clearance obtained for the foundation laying, they said.

The function came weeks before by-polls for Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha, and Mandalgarh Assembly seats in Rajasthan on January 29. The state goes to polls later this year.

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco entered the second round of the Australian Open by defeating compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 7-5 and 7-5 on Tuesday.

Verdasco kicked off the game and quickly gained advantage in the first set against Bautista, who then wasted his serve and failed to win the second set although he initially had 5-4 in his favour, reports Efe.

In the third set, Bautista, who had just won the Auckland tournament earlier in January against Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, could not sustain the advantage he initially achieved and lost to Verdasco.

In the second round of the tournament, Verdasco will compete with German Maximilian Marterer, who also defeated his compatriot Cedrik-Marcel Stebe by 6-0, 6-3 and 6-4 on Tuesday.

Altered development of a part of brain region essential to hearing and understanding sound in preterm infants is associated with poorer language skills in early childhood, a study has found.

The neural machinery that supports hearing is typically functional by 15 weeks before birth, making babies sensitive to speech and language while they are still in the womb.

However, the developmental disturbances to auditory cortex may underlie speech and language impairments at age 2, the researchers from the University of Illinois said.

The team focussed on the primary auditory cortex — which is the first cortical region to receive auditory signals from the ears via other parts of the brain — and the nonprimary auditory cortex — which plays a more sophisticated role in processing those stimuli.

The analysis revealed that the primary auditory cortex matures earlier but more slowly than the nonprimary auditory cortex, which changes rapidly in the last 10 weeks of the typical gestation period.

Developmental differences in the nonprimary auditory cortex of preterm infants were associated with reduced expressive language ability, such as gesturing and vocabulary, in a follow-up assessment at two years of age.

“We have a pretty limited understanding of how the auditory brain develops in preterm infants,” said lead author Brian Monson, Professor at the varsity.

“We know from previous research on full-term newborns that not only are foetuses hearing, but they’re also listening and learning,” Monson added.

For the study, reported in the journal eNeuro, the team examined 90 premature infants born prior to 30 weeks gestation, and 15 full-term babies.

The team used diffusion neuroimaging to study the development of the auditory cortex in the infants’ brains.

“This technique measures the diffusion of water in the brain tissues, which can tell you a lot about the development of neurons and axons,” Monson said.

“It’s exciting to me that we may be able to use this technique to help predict later language ability in infants who are born preterm,” Monson noted.

Gymnast Simone Biles, a four-time Olympic champion from the United States, has said that she was also sexually abused by Larry Nassar, a former US Gymnastics team doctor who was sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges.

“I too am one of the many survivors that was sexually abused by Larry Nassar,” Biles, a 20-year-old gymnast who won four gold medals and a bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics, wrote on her Twitter account on Monday, reports Efe.

“Most of you know me as a happy, giggly and energetic girl, but lately I have felt broken and the more I try to put off the voice in my head, the louder it screams, I’m not afraid to tell my story anymore,” Biles wrote.

“It is not normal to receive any type of treatment from a trusted team physician and refer to it horrifyingly as the ‘special treatment’,” Biles quoted.

Three other US Olympic gymnasts have accused Nassar of sexual abuses, including Gabby Douglas, who won gold with Biles in the 2016 Rio Olympics, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman, who was the first to reveal Nassar’s behaviors.

“This behaviour is completely unacceptable, disgusting and abusive, especially coming from someone whom I was told to trust,” Biles said.

“For too long I’ve asked myself, ‘Was I too naive? Was it my fault?’, ” Biles continued but added that “I now know the answer to those questions: No. No, it was not my fault. No, I will not and should not carry the guilt that belongs to Larry Nassar, USAG and others.

“It is impossible to relive these experiences and it breaks my heart even more to think that as I work towards my dream of competing in Tokyo 2020, I will have to continually return to the same training facility where I was abused,” she explained.

Federal Judge Janet T. Neff sentenced Larry Nassar on December 7, 2017 to the maximum penalty of 60 years in prison on three child pornography charges.

Judge Neff said that her sentence was based on the grave danger and threat that Nassar poses to children. The judge’s verdict could automatically be a life imprisonment for Nassar, who is already 54 years old and currently has another 10 criminal charges pending against him, for which he already pleaded guilty last November.

Nassar also pleaded guilty in July 2017 to charges of obtaining and possessing child pornography and attempting to destroy evidence.

In November 2017, Nassar admitted before the court that the treatment he was performing on athletes was not a legitimate medical procedure.

Music maestro AR Rahman will be composing the music of actor Sivakarthikeyan’s upcoming untitled film, which will be helmed by Ravikumar R.

The Oscar winning music director, who has composed songs for more than 300 films in numerous languages, has been roped in to compose the music for Sivakarthikeyan’s untitled flick, which is touted to be a sci-fi film.

The actor is excited about his latest film’s addition as he believes it’s a dream come true moment for the actor by working with legendary musician.

Sivakarthikeyan announced on January 15 about the latest progress to his film on his Instagram account. He said: “One of my big dream is coming true.Happy and proud to be associated with our pride of india,the most beloved and respected @arrahman sir for My next film with Dir @Ravikumar_Tup,”

One of my big dream is coming true.Happy and proud to be associated with our pride of india,the most beloved and respected @arrahman sir for My next film with Dir @ravikumar_rajendrantup 😊

A post shared by Sivakarthikeyan Doss (@sivakarthikeyan) on Jan 15, 2018 at 4:45am PST

The film will be bankrolled by RD Raja of 24AM Studios, who had also produced few super hit films of Sivakarthikeyan in the past.

Directed by Ravikumar R. The film is slated to hit the theatres sometime in 2019.

After thrashing India in the opening Test match by 72 runs, South African pacers managed to rattle the ‘strong’ batting line-up of India in second Test match, with the exception of Kohli.

Faf du Plessis’ side was not happy with the condition of the Centurion pitch, while Indian skipper Virat Kohli took full advantage of it and scored 153 runs.

Other than Kohli, only Murali Vijay (46) and Ravichandran Ashwin (38) was able to score runs for the visitors. On third day of the second Test match, Hardik Pandya had come under heavy criticism after his silly error that cost the visitors his wicket.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Delhi lad scored 21st Test century of his cricketing career and broke few records.

Here is the list of records made by the 29-year-old in Centurion:

1- With his 21st Test century, Virat tok the tally to 53 century (Test-21, ODIs-32) in all format of the game, a record that he shares with West Indies cricket great Brian Lara.

2- Virat Kohli became second Indian skipper to score a century in South Africa after Sachin Tendulkar’s 169 in Cape Town in 1997.

3- Kohli’s sensational 153-run knock is the third-highest individual score by an Asian batsman in the rainbow nation. Virat shares this record with Cheteshwar Pujara (Jo’burg, 2013).

4- Virat Kohli also equalled the record of legendary Don Bradman to score eight 150 plus score in Test as a captain.

5- Virat Kohli also surpassed the record of Michael Clarke, who had scored seven 150 plus score as a skipper.

Earlier, in the second Test after winning the toss, South Africa elected to bat and scored 335 runs in the first inning. Following the target visitors score 307 runs with the help of Virat’s 153 knock before being bowled out. In the second innings, the Proteas had taken the lead of 118 runs as the game ended on third day.

Private low-cost carrier SpiceJet would explore the possibility of manufacturing sea-planes in West Bengal, its chairman Ajay Singh said.

He said the company would also start flights from the greenfield airport at Andal near Durgapur and also starting flights from Kolkata to Chittagong.

Speaking at the Bengal Global Business Summit 2018 here today, Singh said there was a potential for making West Bengal a hub for sea-planes which can fly to Gangasagar, Sunderbans and other parts of the state.

“We would like to fly these sea-planes in the state to boost tourism as well to explore the possibility of manufacturing them in the state,” Singh said before a gathering of eminent industry captains of the country.

Presently, 75 SpiceJet flights operate from Kolkata airport and the number would increase once more aircraft arrive.

Singh also said the carrier could also connect the city with several Asian countries.

SpiceJet would also operate flights from Andal to Bangalore and Hyderabad, he said.

Pakistani all-rounder Shoaib Malik was hit on the back of his head by a ball during the Pakistan versus New Zealand One-Day encounter at the Sheldon Park in Hamilton. Spectators and the players on the ground witnessed with dread as Malik fell on the ground.

The Pakistan Cricket Board said that a delayed concussion due to the hit prevented Malik from fielding in the second innings of the match.

The incident happened in the 32nd over of the first innings of the fourth ODI match. Malik, who was on 1, was hit by a throw from Colin Munro as he attempted to steal a single.

Ball hit on @realshoaibmalik head … threw by #Kiwi player #PAKvsNZ pic.x.com/2ZgwQ4AIFQ

— Kashif Baig (@kashif_baig) January 16, 2018

He was batting without a helmet because Kiwis had launched their spin-bowling attack.

The force of the impact was such that the ball ricocheted to the boundary after hitting him on the head.

Though Malik resumed batting after medical attention that lasted several minutes, he was caught out at a personal score of 6 off 8 deliveries.

Malik, the husband of Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, was assessed by the match doctor and Pakistan team physiotherapist VB Singh.

Singh said that Malik is now fine.

The incident brought back memories of the tragic incident of 25 November 2014 when Australian batsman Phillip Hughes was hit on the neck by a bouncer during a first-class cricket match. He died two days later having never regained consciousness.

In a setback to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s much-hyped “human chain” against child marriage and dowry to be organised on January 21, the Patna High Court on Tuesday has directed the state government that children, including students, will not participate in it without guardians.

The court, while hearing a petition filed by the Nagrik Adhikar Manch, said parents’ permission is mandatory for children to participate in the human chain and government will not take action against those children and school students who would not participate in it.

The petitioners have told the court that the state government has been putting pressure on school students to participate in the human chain, ignoring cold wave conditions, for political gain only.

Last year, also after the High Court’s directive, the state government had assured that the participation of school children was not mandatory for the “human chain” in support of the state government’s prohibition policy.

The government then said there would be no forcible participation.

The Bihar government plans to form “the world’s longest human chain against child marriage and dowry”.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has launched a massive campaign against the child marriage and dowry in the state on October 2, 2017

Two teachers of Sherwood College in Uttarakhand have been sentenced to a year in jail after being found wanting in the discharge of their duties during an excursion in which two students were killed after a tractor-trolley they were travelling in overturned, an official said.

A group of 42 students had gone on an excursion to Sitawani in Nainital district in 2010. They were accompanied by two teachers — Ashish Dwivedi and Rohit Jalaal. The children were driven in a tractor trolley which overturned, killing two students and injuring seven others.

The parents of the two students — Anmol Bhatt (14) of Haldwani and Ibrahim Ansari (14) of Kanpur — had filed a case against the tractor’s driver, Anand, and the two teachers.

Judicial Magistrate Manju Devi agreed with the prosecution that the teachers were callous and held them and the driver guilty, the official said.

The cricket lovers and fans of Indian skipper were thrilled with Virat Kohli’s 153-run knock against South Africa in the second Test match at SuperSport Park in Centurion. However despite his astounding knock, Twitter users did not spare the captain as they were busy in making memes of his still from centurion Test in which Virat could be seen frozen in a jump-like posture above the ground.

However, Virat is not the only one who had become the butt of jokes on the mico-blogging site, as star all-rounder Hardik Pandya was also brutally trolled for his bizarre run out in the second Test.

Earlier, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar had blasted Pandya for his run out from commentary box and Sanjay Manjrekar, too, had called Pandya arrogant.

Check out the memes:

Kitna bhi khoshish kar le… Mere se zyada upar koi jump nahi kar sakta ~ Dinda pic.x.com/ozYzpwMKt8

— The (@Chandorkar) January 15, 2018

“Kaun hain humaare honeymoon ka jokes banane waale? Mukka maarunga BC!!!” pic.x.com/ELXhd8s8XU

— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) January 15, 2018

Virat is going places. #INDvSA pic.x.com/EVpHk0BmQC

— Angoor Stark 🍇 (@ladywithflaws) January 15, 2018

Ye mukka Rohit ke liye hai use bataane ke liye ki Aise khela jata hai pic.x.com/ertdWmlvbT

— भाईसाहब (@Bhai_saheb) January 15, 2018

Floor is perfect team selection. pic.x.com/49g2tFrb7k

— Kuptaan🇮🇳 (@Kuptaan) January 15, 2018

Honeymoon celebrations be like #SAvIND #INDvSA pic.x.com/fEBhtJfMNu

— Jinx™© (@meetdspartan) January 15, 2018

Superman Vs Batman pic.x.com/WvL7ZeUV43

— ScarFace Swamy (@RAC7R) January 15, 2018

Ravi Shastri & Hardik Pandya in the Dressing Room#SAvIND pic.x.com/Wd1GjGGrad

— Hariharan Durairaj (@hari_durairaj) January 15, 2018

*Relatives watching my failures* pic.x.com/48777p2ifG

— Akshay Jain (@AkshayKatariyaa) January 15, 2018

The leg umpire is my baba watching me and my results closely 🙂

— Gud 10 (@Ihsirh) January 15, 2018

Mondays are hard. pic.x.com/uWVVQ0Mf7B

— Trendulkar (@Trendulkar) January 15, 2018

Hardik Pandya:

Bats in style
Bowls in style
Fields in style

And gets run out in style as well.#INDvSA #SAvIND pic.x.com/KEj5JoJXDI

— Sir Rohit Sharma (@ImRo450) January 15, 2018

Earlier after winning the toss, South Africa opted to bat and scored 335 runs in their first innings. Following the target, India was bowled out for 307 runs. In the second innings, Proteas had taken the lead of 172 runs with the help of AB de Villiers’ half century.

A civilian injured in clashes with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir last month died in hospital on Tuesday.

Muhammad Ayub Bhat, who had sustained gunshot injuries in Batmuran village of Shopian district during clashes between protesters and security forces on December 19, succumbed in the hospital.

Two militants were killed by security forces in the gunfight in Batmuran village on that day after which protests had broken out.

A woman was killed and over four dozen civilians injured in the protests.

ALSO READ: Protests over civilian’s death in J-K Army ambush

ALSO READ: Five protesters injured in J-K firing

ALSO READ: Three children injured in Pakistan shelling on LoC in Poonch

ALSO READ: Civilian injured in Pakistan firing in J&K

ALSO READ: 2 children dead, 9 injured in Pakistan shelling on LoC; militant killed

Bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra, who turned 33 on Tuesday, is looking forward to the release of Aiyaary. His friends and colleagues from the film industry have wished him good luck for the movie and beyond.

Sidharth, along with Aiyaary filmmaker Neeraj Pandey and actors Manoj Bajpayee, Rakul Preet Singh and Pooja Chopra, have been mingling with soldiers in Jaisalmer. They even visited the BSF camp there, and Sidharth also cut a cake there.

While the film will hit the screens on February 9, Sidharth’s celebrity friends have wished that the year turns out fruitful for him. Here’s what they tweeted:

Manoj Bajpayee: Happy birthday my junior major Jai Bakshi. ‘Aiyaary’ Sidharth Malhotra. May you keep shining bright all your life. Love and happiness always!

Wishing our charming aiyaar Major Jai Bakshi urf @S1dharthM a very happy birthday! #HappyBirthdaySidharthMalhotra#Aiyaary in cinemas on 09.02.18 pic.x.com/vsweUBGzJf

— Plan C Studios (@PlanC_Studios) January 16, 2018

Abhishek Bachchan: Happy Birthday Sid. Have a great year. Good luck at the movies.

Happy Birthday Sid. Have a great year. Good luck at the movies. @S1dharthM

— Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) January 16, 2018

Shraddha Kapoor: Happy birthday Sidharth Malhotra! Keep shining, smiling and killing it!

Happy birthdayyyy @S1dharthM !!! Keep shining, smiling & killing it! ❤️

— Shraddha (@ShraddhaKapoor) January 16, 2018

Riteish Deshmukh: To my sweetest co-star and fellow villain Sidharth Malhotra, a very happy birthday. Have a stupendous birthday brother and ‘Aiyaary’ is looking fabulous.

To my sweetest costar & fellow Villain @S1dharthM a very happy birthday. – have a stupendous birthday brother. & #Aiyaary is looking fabulous. pic.x.com/uasit0Cl3J

— Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) January 16, 2018

Kriti Sanon: Happy birthday Sidharth Malhotra! Have a fabulous year fellow Delhiite! Looking forward to ‘Aiyaary’!

Happy birthday @S1dharthM !! Have a fabulous year fellow Delhiite! ☺️✌️looking forward to #Aiyaari !

— Kriti Sanon (@kritisanon) January 16, 2018

Harbhajan Singh: Happy birthday Sid, have a good one brother… Milde aa jaldi (Let’s meet soon). Rab rakha. Cheers.

Happy birthday Sid @S1dharthM have a good one brother.. milde aa jaldi..Rab rakha.. cheers pic.x.com/8fODw3vARt

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) January 16, 2018

Rakul Preet: Happy birthday to the not so aiyaar in real life Sidharth Malhotra. Wishing you the best of everything. Keep slaying!

Happpppppy bday to the not so aiyaar in real life @S1dharthM .wishing u the best of everything..keep slaying ! pic.x.com/8gTz0kYIcm

— Rakul Preet (@Rakulpreet) January 16, 2018

Pooja Chopra: Since pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real, happy birthday to a very very real star Sidharth Malhotra. Have an awesome one boy. Tons of love and luck.

Since pride makes us artificial n humility makes us real, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a very very real star @S1dharthM have an awesome one boy tons of love n luck pic.x.com/LPtXIMGKuK

— Capt. Maya Semwal (@Pooja_Chopra_) January 16, 2018

Kunal Kohli: Sidharth Malhotra happy birthday buddy. Looking forward to ‘Aiyaary’ and a great year from you.

Ajaz Khan: Happy Birthday Sidharth Malhotra. Allah bless you brother.

Happy Birthday @S1dharthM
ALLAH Bless You Brother #HappyBirthdaySidharthMalhotra pic.x.com/1RCNv82txt

— Ajaz Khan (@AjazkhanActor) January 16, 2018

Sachin-Jigar: Wishing a very happy birthday to the rockstar @S1dharthM !!#HappyBirthdaySidharthMalhotra

Wishing a very happy birthday to the rockstar @S1dharthM !!#HappyBirthdaySidharthMalhotra #sachinjigar

— Sachin-Jigar (@SachinJigarLive) January 16, 2018

Shakti Arora: To the man who is an inspiration to many.. Happy Birthday @S1dharthM May all your wishes comes true. Wishing you all the success for your upcoming movie #Aiyaary
#HappyBirthdaySidharthMalhotra

To the man who is an inspiration to many.. Happy Birthday @S1dharthM May all your wishes comes true. Wishing you all the success for your upcoming movie #Aiyaary #HappyBirthdaySidharthMalhotra

— Shakti Arora (@shaktiarora) January 16, 2018